Almost 1 in 5 Households Owe Student Loan Debt

Almost one in five households owed student loan debt in 2010, according to a new analysis from the Pew Research Center. The 19 percent total represents a significant increase from the level just three years prior (and before the start of the recession), when the figure was 15 percent. As recently as 1989, the figure was only 9 percent. Among households headed by someone younger than 35 in 2010, the rate was 40 percent.